New West Midlands self-driving shuttles to stop at Greggs and major train station - full list
A fleet of autonomous shuttles are gearing up to take to the roads - and the full list of stops includes popular hospitality, leisure and travel venues. The self-driving shuttles will connect key transport hubs and will have benefits for visitors to the biggest regional venues, including Birmingham Airport.
Solihull's new self-driving shuttles are in their final stages of testing, and once they are in action they will operate a seven kilometre-route, a little over four miles, in Solihull. Solihull Council said the Solihull and Coventry Automated Links Evolution (SCALE) project had been established to test how self-driving vehicles might feature within future transport systems.
And with the full route including stops at Greggs, Resorts World, Birmingham International and the Premier Inn, the shuttle service is likely to be a popular way for regional visitors to get around. Transport bosses shared a full route map with BirminghamLive, but said it was currently undergoing on-site testing so would not run the full 7km yet.
READ MORE: Solihull self-driving shuttle bus route map as NEC and Birmingham International stops included
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The shuttle service is due to launch shortly after final on-site testing and is currently scheduled to run until the end of March 2025. It has been brought to life with allocated funding, to see how West Midlands passengers respond to the new mode of transport. Monitoring is also being done to see if it would be commercially viable.
List of stops
Each shuttle can transport up to 20 passengers at one time and uses a mixture of of cameras and sensors to understand their surroundings. Transport chiefs said that running the service in the "busy but controlled environment" of the NEC campus will give it a chance to interact with live traffic safely.
1) Resorts World
2) NEC Piazza - Birmingham International Rail station
3) NEC Atrium 1
4) NEC Atrium 2
5) Premier Inn
6) Prologis (N)
7) Greggs
8) Prologis
9) Pinewood
10) Citibase
11) Pro Logis (S)
12) Premier Inn South
13) NEC Atrium 2 (S)
14) NEC Atrium 1 (S)
15) NEC Piazza (S)
The fully electric buses were built by New Zealand based autonomous vehicle manufacturer Ohmio and the project is being delivered by a consortium led by Solihull Council, including the University of Warwick and Coventry University, TfWM, the NEC, Coventry City Council, Direct Line Group and automated vehicle simulation specialists IPG and dRISK.
Funding for the multi-million-pound project has been provided by the Department for Transport’s Centre for Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV). You can read more on what what regional chiefs have planned for the shuttle service in our explainer here.
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